The Dixie Chicks are planning to split up after the Grammy Awards next February because sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison want to concentrate on being great mothers.


Insiders claim the siblings are "tired and wrung out" after spending the past three years defending themselves from comments singer Natalie Maines made onstage in London in 2003 - and they're desperate for a long-term break.


The Dixie Chicks became the targets of fierce backlash from the country music world when Natalie Maines announced she was ashamed to come from the same state (Texas) as Us President George W Bush.


A source told the National Enquirer:

They feel they've come to the end , and they want a break from each other to spend more time with their families.

The source added:

They've received death threats and it's made them all nervous wrecks... Natalie has so ruined things for the band that they can't stand to be around her, and they get in huge-in-your-face shouting matches.